80 PISOICULTUEE IN GERMANY. 



prejudice, the eel being good for food in a very high degree. In 

 all Eomau Catholic countries there are so many fast-days that fish- 

 food becomes to the people an essential article of diet ; in France 

 this is so, and the consequence is that a good many private 

 amateurs in pisciculture are to be found in that country ; but 

 the mission of the French government in connection with fish- 

 culture is apparently to meddle only with the rearing and ac- 

 climatising of the more valuable fishes. It would be a waste of 

 energy for the authorities at Huningue to commence the culture 

 of the carp or perch. In our Protestant coimtry there is no 

 demand for the commoner river or lake fishes except for the 

 purposes of sport ; and with one or two exceptions, such as the 

 Lochleyen trout, the charr, etc., there is no commerce carried 

 on in these fishes. One has but to visit the fishmarket at Paris 

 to observe that aU kmds of fresh-water fish and river Crustacea 

 are there ranked as saleable, and largely purchased. The mode 

 of keeping these animals fresh is worthy of being followed here. 

 They are kept alive till wanted in large basins and troughs, 

 where they may at aU times be seen swimming about in a very 

 lively state. 



As soon as the piscicultural system became known, it was 

 rapidly extended over the whole continent of Europe, and the 

 rivers of Germany were among the first to participate in the 

 advantages of artificial cultivation. In particular may be 

 noticed the efforts made to increase the supplies of the Danube 

 salmon, a beautiful and excellent food-fish, with a body similar 

 to the trout, but still more shapely and graceful, and which, if 

 allowed time, is said to grow to an enormous size. The young 

 salmon of the Danube are always of a darker colour than those 

 a little older, but they become lighter in colour as they progress 

 in years. The mouth of this fish is furnished with very* strong 

 teeth ; its*back is of a reddish grey, its sides and belly perfectly 

 white ; the fins are bluish white ; the back and the upper part 

 of both sides are slightly and irregularly speckled with black 

 and roundish red spots. This fish is also very prolific. Pro- 

 fessor Wimmer of Landshut, the authorities at Huningue 

 mentioned, had frequently obtained as many as 40,000 eggs 

 from a female specimen which weighed only eighteen pounds. 

 Our own Sahno solar is not so fecund, it being well understood 

 that a thousand eggs per pound weight is about the average 

 spawning power of the British salmon. The ova of the Danube 

 salmon are hatched in half the time that our salmon eggs re- 



